why are Per Una clothes so annoying?

[plumandolive]

Had to walk hrough them to ge to the tights and they just really irritated me.
I know it's irrational..
is it those stripey cardies with big buttons that 50 yr olds wear because they think it makes them seem 30.
Or the stiched on bits like flowers and embroidered bits all over the place.
Or the waterfall cardies is nasty colours that think they're like jigsaw ten years ago
Or too much brown...
Or tring to make everytig special by saying it's italian or Roma or something when really it's hite...
didn't really have a good look honestly.....

OOhhh that's better.
Thankyou everyone. I knew I wasn't alone but needed to get that off my chest...

Eh? They have lots of sanwiches on the counter? How odd.

Yes it's Eat (caf, how very common of me)

someone who designs for Per Una has an obsession with orange.

and lime green.

together.

EVERY season there is something knitted in these two colours.

truly vile.

I wear it. I hardly ever buy new clothes but when I do they are virtually always Per Una.

I know I am going to be laughed off Mumsnet now because I know you all hate it, but I honestly, genuinely have no idea why you hate it. I don't buy the stuff with flounces or frills or bits tagged on, though I know what you mean when you mention those bits.

I am not bothered that I now buy all my clothes in the dreaded M&S, but I wish I could understand what you all have against it.

I will tell you why I like it: it is M&S and I know M&S is decent quality and won't fall apart in the wash. I know it is middle class and middle aged (so am I). They also do a good job of colour co-ordinating things so I know what to put with my separates (because I am hopeless at knowing what looks right otherwise).

You say it is for 50 year old women who want to dress as though they are 30. Well, apart from the fact that I am only 43, I can't understand what is wrong with that.

Anyone who would like to explain it all to me, rather than howling with laughter at my expense, please do.

Normal? Normal? She should've gone to a caf for normal.

i am wearing a Per Una cardi and skirt today..in brown..and am only 36

In my defence I will point out that there are no frills flounces or flowers anywhere to be seen on either item!!!

DG my mum always looks nice.

Per Una is just like nice clothes that have got a disease.

Well, of course I would say I don't buy the horrid bits only the nice stuff, but I genuinely think there are nice things to choose from, whereas a lot of you seem to be condemning the entire label.

But then what do I know? I bought a lovely skirt from there last year with a plain polo neck jumper and a jacket. I would never have thought to put them together but there they were together on the display stand so I saw that they went. I went to a job interview in that outfit and have subsequently worn it to work a few times. I feel smart, co-ordinated and professional in it and I have lost count of the number of people who have complimented me on the skirt which is (IMO and theirs) absolutely gorgeous - the sort of skirt I will hang on to for the rest of my life probably (you know how you sometimes have items in your wardrobe you just can't bear to part with even if you never wear them anymore?)

YET, that very same skirt was held up to ridicule here on MN on a previous thread about Per Una. (I kept quiet about the fact I owned it then!)

Sorry DG, I've just read your post

I think what it is, is that M&S aren't being 'ingenuous'

what I mean is they aren't bgeing themselves. They are trying too hard to be something they cannot be. That's why it galls. They just have got it all wrong really.

There is some really nice stuff there and I expect that is the stuff you go for

but some is just too awful for words. I wish they would just stick to what they';re good at and stop trying to be 'trendy' because it's like watching your dad at a disco.

Dumble- it just annoys me as it's expensive and I think trying to be something it isn't;
and for all the reasons I posted.
But I wouldn't complain about the things without bits and flounces and stuff.
I think they're expensive for what they are and the materials they're made from;
and other shops like Jigsaw, Monsoon, Toast etc do nicer stuff in a similar price range.

I think brown looks good on dark or olive skins- black or Italian looks, but is very difficul on pasty Anglo saxons; but because PU splodgeitalian all over everything, we fantasise that we too can look good in it.
Or maybe it's just bitter old me...who doesn't do brown

It is something about it, the way you see people shopping there with their mum, and your mum would like the things and that would make you not want to buy them iyswim.

It seems to be full of a) old women trying to look young and trendy
and b) young women who aspire to something I cannot understand...but they are the type of young women who look right down their noses at me and have very clean living rooms with laminate. They also have the same hairdresser as their mum and used to bitch about me at school.

Oh ok, so what you are all saying is you hate it because it isn't real M&S? Phew. That is ok then, because all I see when I look around M&S is stuff my grandmother would have worn and it embarrasses me that I am even in a shop with such clothes.

Whereas the Per Una stuff (some of it!) I feel comfortable looking at.

I did once ask years ago where I should shop if I liked the Per Una image but did not want to buy Per Una stuff, and I was not that impressed with the alternatives people gave. Monsoon for example has never made clothes to fit me, has always been vastly too expensive for my pocket, and the last time I went in there (earlier this year) I was horrified at the pure tat it was selling. I remember Monsoon when it first opened. It was full of really respectable, quality clothes.

LOL maybe the Italian bit has the real answer because you see I have very Italian looks (often mistaken for an Italian) and I can wear brown very easily (never do though!)

lol at frighatttendant! Spot on

There's always some nice stuff.

Actaully I have a work dress from per una, which i tend to forget as it looks very unper una. Although it is brown. BUT it's a lovely pinafore which a chunky leather belt which looks really nice for work.

Show us your skirt DG.

I object most to the recycling of the same designs which has been going on for years now. Very annoying if (like my mum) you bought it 2 year ago and now everyone has one in a difernt colour.

You don't want your clothes to scream where they were bought from, whether it's MandS, Boden, jigsaw or gap.

Dumbledores- you're probably the woman we all glower at because you look effortessly fab it PU!

I do wear brown a lot! I agree monsoon now sells awful tat.

Ihave still got a £50 voucher to use there and cannot find ONE thing that is worth the money.

They had a great sale outlet that closed down, have to wait for the sale I think...

You see, I am not that bothered at the thought of wearing clothes my mother would want me to wear. I think that is a phase you go through when you are a teenager and in your 20s, when you wouldn't be seen dead in M&S clothes and you enjoy wearing stuff that makes your mother's eyebrows shoot up, but then you mature and find your tastes change and you want to wear clothes that suit your age. Don't you? Well, I did anyway.

Oh and btw, FA, my sitting room is a junk hole as is the rest of my house and I hate laminate flooring!

Oh yes - definitely, I want to look my age but I still don't like my mum's taste!!!

I am glad you have a messy house - we are still pals then I hope!